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Topic: Tips on how to be the best academically (Read 548 times)

The school I'm going to next year is getting its biggest ever incoming freshman class with the highest ever average GPA and ACT scores. After procrastinating and limping through all of my classes in high school I've decided I want to be the best. Highest GPA and everything. Anyone have any tips?

« Last Edit: June 18, 2013, 10:59:35 PM by William »

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Apart from moral conduct, all that man thinks himself able to do in order to become acceptable to God is mere superstition and religious folly. - Immanuel Kant

Always do your homework early. This has always served me best. Don't wait until last minute when you will be forced to complete it in a hurry and find yourself overwhelmed. I always stay 3 weeks ahead in my homework, that way, I have spare time, and if the teacher unexpectedly assigns a new assignment, it doesn't overwhelm me and I can give it my total attention.

The school I'm going to next year is getting its biggest ever incoming freshman class with the highest ever average GPA and ACT scores. After procrastinating and limping through all of my classes in high school I've decided I want to be the best. Highest GPA and everything. Anyone have any tips?

Hmm....work hard, but don't become a slave to it; keep your passions under control, but have some fun, too.

Stop procrastinating .

(Just out of curiosity, what's gonna happen if you're *not* the best? You know, if you come in 2nd or 3rd or 25th or something? And...why are you going to college?)

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"May Thy Cross, O Lord, in which I seek refuge, be for me a bridge across the great river of fire. May I pass along it to the habitation of life." ~St. Ephraim the Syrian

In order to get the best grades in college, I found it best to go to upperclassmen and asked around to find out what is the easiest major the college offers and what professors are willing to hand out good grades like candy because they are worried the students won't like them otherwise. This minimizes the amount of effort needed while in college.

Of course, once you graduate with a major in underwater basketweaving, finding a job can be a bit of a challenge, but hey, at least you have the degree.

1) Always go to class, no matter what.2) Never be late.3) Read the material before the lecture.4) When something is hard to do and you become exasperated... don't. Instead of thinking of it seeing as something to become frustrated about see it as something to accomplish, and realize nothing valuable comes from little effort.

Please don't let this be another "college is overrated/a rip off/useless" thread. Please? Let's just help the guy out...

Well, college IS overrated----there, it's out . My suggestions/questions were also quite serious.

Like anything, college is a value proposition. If you pay 40k a year for a 4 year degree in English literature, you are probably not going to get your money's worth. If you pay 15k a year and get an engineering degree, you are in a much better position. Making a blanket statement about whether it is a good idea or not is premature until you know more info on where he is going, what he is majoring in, etc. For me personally, I believe the experience of college was very beneficial because it forced me to be independent and interact with a wide range of people from different backgrounds. The formal education was a distant second to the "social education" I received.

Also, GPAs are not overly important. If you don't get over a 3.8, you aren't going to put your GPA on your resume and most employers will never ask about it anyways.

In order to get the best grades in college, I found it best to go to upperclassmen and asked around to find out what is the easiest major the college offers and what professors are willing to hand out good grades like candy because they are worried the students won't like them otherwise. This minimizes the amount of effort needed while in college.

Of course, once you graduate with a major in underwater basketweaving, finding a job can be a bit of a challenge, but hey, at least you have the degree.

Course strength is taken into account with class ranking, I think.

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Apart from moral conduct, all that man thinks himself able to do in order to become acceptable to God is mere superstition and religious folly. - Immanuel Kant

Please don't let this be another "college is overrated/a rip off/useless" thread. Please? Let's just help the guy out...

Well, college IS overrated----there, it's out . My suggestions/questions were also quite serious.

Like anything, college is a value proposition. If you pay 40k a year for a 4 year degree in English literature, you are probably not going to get your money's worth. If you pay 15k a year and get an engineering degree, you are in a much better position. Making a blanket statement about whether it is a good idea or not is premature until you know more info on where he is going, what he is majoring in, etc. For me personally, I believe the experience of college was very beneficial because it forced me to be independent and interact with a wide range of people from different backgrounds. The formal education was a distant second to the "social education" I received.

Also, GPAs are not overly important. If you don't get over a 3.8, you aren't going to put your GPA on your resume and most employers will never ask about it anyways.

Unfortunately I am a silly humanities-lover who has no capacities for success in STEM.

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Apart from moral conduct, all that man thinks himself able to do in order to become acceptable to God is mere superstition and religious folly. - Immanuel Kant

- If you're going to do a final paper in a class, get started ahead of time. Often a teacher will have a specific plan outlined for how to do it--but just because they have a plan that doesn't mean you'll be suited to that plan. Maybe the paper you'll want to do will require less intensive specialized research, but a lot of reading of fairly mundane stuff that you'll have to comb through, for example. Figure out your own timeline, then figure out how to work on your own in the way you want while still delivering material for the teacher's deadlines.

- Plan what classes you want ahead of time. Plan for the whole 4 years if possible. Obviously colleges don't put schedules out that tell you what classes will be available years from now, but generally they don't deviate too much from past years. If they've offer Alien Genetics every fall in the evening with professor Barf for the last 6 years, they'll most likely have the same class/time/teacher the next cycle through (provided the aliens don't come to retrieve him). Don't assume that the people the college pays to advise you on scheduling knows any more than a turnip.

- Get to class early. Like really early, not "oh sweet, I'm here early and that cute chick is here so now I can talk to her." Um, but when you get their early don't surf oc.net, use the time to study. Force yourself to memorize those dates, or quickly write up that blurb on buckyballs you forgot to do.

« Last Edit: June 19, 2013, 06:07:08 PM by Asteriktos »

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"Christian America is finally waking up to what fraternities and biker gangs have known for years: hazing works!"

If there is a syllabus for the class (and all of mine have had them) do not ignore it and do not lose it. Keep track of it so that you can read it and consult it to make sure that you are up on the reading, are aware of dates for assignments, tests and so forth. All of the ones I've gotten have also had very useful information such as professor/teaching assistant office hours, how to contact them, the grading rubric, the format for papers such as MLA or APA and mote.

Textbooks are expensive. If possible renting them is much more economical and you don't end up with a shelf of books that you won't use. Also, it does save on trees since the books can be used over. I and my family have been using Chegg.com for years and years. One can also sometimes get them used on places like Ebay, Bookfinders or Abe.com or Amazon

Learn to research and to properly cite sources in papers.

Ebor

« Last Edit: June 20, 2013, 10:22:40 AM by Ebor »

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"I wish they would remember that the charge to Peter was "Feed my sheep", not "Try experiments on my rats", or even "Teach my performing dogs new tricks". - C. S. Lewis